The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the embodiments and may not constitute prior art.
In recent years, IT devices such as a mobile phone with a camera installed therein, a smart-phone, a tablet PC, a laptop computer, etc. have been actively developed.
In the case of a camera module mounted in a small electronic device such as a smart-phone, the camera module may include a device for auto-focusing. Specifically, a lens driving device for auto-focusing and a circuit board that is coupled to the lens driving device and accommodates an image sensor can be provided in the camera module.
Meanwhile, if an external force is applied to the camera module, the lens driving device may be separated from the circuit board. If the lens driving device and image sensor are separated from each other, the quality of an image captured by the camera module may be degraded.
In particular, when the lens driving device is separated from the circuit board, the lens driving device cannot properly perform the auto-focusing function, and thus the resolution of the image captured by the camera module may also be degraded.
The camera module mounted in a small electronic device such as a smart phone can be composed of the lens driving device and the circuit board coupled to the lens driving device.
The lens driving device may include at least one lens, an auto-focusing device for focusing on the lens in an optical axis direction, and a vibration compensation mechanism for preventing image quality degradation due to user's hand shaking.
The circuit board can be coupled to the lens driving device and may include an image sensor for capturing an image of a subject, various elements for controlling the lens driving device, circuit patterns, terminals, and the like.
In addition, a portion of the circuit board may be made of a flexible material. If the flexible portion of the circuit board repeatedly deforms due to continuous external forces, it may cause cracks and damages to the circuit patterns, terminals and the like included in the circuit board, and the cracks and damages may cause malfunction of the camera module.